Common but not ordinary: a Late 11th-Century Dioscorides Written in Two Scripts Not a single decorative element is encountered in this manuscript and the parchment is of particularly poor quality. But the mix of scripts on its pages reveal an interesting story. Guest author • January 06, 2011
Imagining the past in a royal codex It took four folio volumes to contain an illustrated Miroir historial. A manuscript now kept in Leiden and one in Paris form the first two volumes of such a set, ordered by the French royal family. André Bouwman • November 19, 2010
Greek Learning in the Arab world. The Materia Medica of Dioscorides In the ninth century the language of culture in the Middle East was no longer Greek but Arabic. In Baghdad, a certain Stephanus translated the Materia Medica into Arabic. Arnoud Vrolijk • November 05, 2010
Facebooker in the sixteenth century: Bonaventura Vulcanius Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century scholars developed their own ways of creating a social network. How did they communicate without modern social media like Facebook, Hyves and LinkedIn? Kasper van Ommen • October 07, 2010
Dante’s Inferno: the three-headed monster Lucifer In hell, ruling the gloomy world of the doomed, Lucifer is situated at the centre of the crust of ice where the worst of sinners are being punished. The devil's genitals constitute the exact Centrum Mundi. Anton van der Lem • August 20, 2010
Wigalois, a German Arthurian Hero The remarkable style of the miniatures, perhaps influenced by medieval tapestries, is clearly distinct from the contemporary Arthurian iconography, dominated by Parisian illuminators. André Bouwman • July 09, 2010
Rainer Maria Rilke, Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge The text wasn’t like anything readers had ever read before, not in as far as its content was concerned, nor in its structure. It seemed to belong more to the world of poetry than to that of prose. Jef Schaeps • June 04, 2010
Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis: a late antique bestseller in the ninth century The interest in Martianus's text was at a peak in the ninth century. Many copies were made, and the text was enriched with a thick layer of annotations (glosses): notes in tiny letters in the margins and in between the lines. Guest author • May 21, 2010
Bibliotheca Mathematica of David Bierens de Haan catalogued The collection comprises 56 portfolios, each with dozens of smaller publications, mainly in the field of mathematics, sciences and technique. Anton van der Lem • April 23, 2010
